Users consume written or graphic content in various ways. Traditionally such consumption has been by way of reading or viewing of physically printed materials on paper. Recently, reading on physical print media has been overtaken by electronic reading on the web (or off-line by downloaded reading content), by means of a desktop computer, laptop or electronic reading devices. Sales of e-books have, in fact, overtaken sales of the traditional paper based books.
As a more recent phenomena, consumption of content, in digital form, including newspapers and magazines, on tablet computers and other mobile devices has grown exponentially. It is expected that in the very near future, mobile/touch devices will be the overwhelming primary medium with which users will be reading content.
Impeding such transition is the fact that currently not all content is presented in a mobile and touch friendly manner. Actual formatting of the converted print material or even electronic or digital or e-type of materials from one type of electronic device (e.g., from pc or laptops to readers or tablets), or the web, is often perceived as being unprofessional, uneven, and viewably sloppy. This results in a negative perception and a poor user-experience and a lack of acceptance, which affects perception of the publisher. In many instances, content in its current form, is not even viewable on mobile devices or specialized versions in different unsatisfying formats are made specifically for the mobile device.
It has therefore become imperative that content publishers, having a printed, electronic, digital or e-material content base or web content base, in order to economically survive, need to incorporate into their publishing strategy, facilitated procedures for e-publishing the originally content (whether printed or in electronic or digital form or as web content). This is of particular importance with respect to publishing on mobile/touch devices, such as smartphones and, on the increasingly popular tablet computers or readers. The publishing strategy needs to also include not only making content available on these devices but also the enhancing of an e-reading experience, by adding device centric capabilities such as touch gestures, accelerometer uses or use of the GPS functions.
However, publishers who are scrambling to make their content presentable on mobile devices have very limited operational choices available to them. Most often the publishers are required to hire mobile developer specialists to code applications to work on the devices. This is however, very costly and time consuming and not economically available to smaller publishing outfits, and is even less available to individuals. A need has therefore arisen for the development of a platform and process by which tablet and mobile publishing can be made economically and viable available to all sources of e-publishable content and even to those who are not technically proficient.